Why Women Cry: Because We're Pissed OffCOMMENTS
I cry mainly out of frustration...and then get indignant about it, because the person on the other end gets self-important. It never solves anything!
Excellent point about gender conditioning here.
While women tend to cry when frustrated (you know, because angry isn't lady-like), men tend to get mad. An angry person who's (typically) bigger than you is intimidating at the core and has much more potential to influence the outcome of an argument than tears. After all, tears might play on our emotions, but anger and intimidation create fear. Has "Jonathan" considered that maybe his girlfriend starts crying during an argument because his anger is scaring her?
So if we assume that women cry during arguments to manipulate an argument, we must also assume that any time a man gets angry, he is doing so to scare his partner. This is a reductive and really sad way to look at complex relationships and emotions. But what else to expect from a column titled "The Trouble with Women"?
As a dude, let me say that I know very few men, if any, who are well-equipped to deal with/express their anger at all.
I, and most of the men I know, were brought up to repress our feelings b/c feelings and emotion "were for pussies".
Well let me tell you how well that has worked out ...
Sad? = Angry
Hurt? = Angry
Ashamed/Embarrassed? = Angry
In short, any non-happy emotion correlates to anger and anger alone.
One of these days I am gonna need a really expensive shrink.
Or I'll just drink until I have a heart attack.
When I got bitched out at work by a manager from another group and my manager for hurting someone's feelings (really, it was sarcasm and it wasn't even directed at him), I went out to my car, called my wife, and started bawling.
It isn't just a woman thing.
I think men are taught to channel anger into physical confrontation or to swallow it and take it out on someone else later.
What are women taught to do with their anger?
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